Creative Photoshop CS4 Digital Illustration and Art Techniques

435 Pages·2009·60.58 MB·English

Creative Photoshop CS4
Digital Illustration and Art Techniques
Derek Lea
AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON • NEW YORK • OXFORD • PARIS
SAN DIEGO • SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO
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ISBN: 978-0-240-52134-3
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Printed in Canada
Contents
Contents
Foreword v
Introduction vii
Acknowledgments xi
Part One: Drawing and Painting
Chapter 1: Painting in Photoshop
Chapter 2: Creating Characters with Shape Layers 21
Chapter 3: Graffiti Spray Paint Art 41
Chapter 4: Creating Stencil Art 55
Chapter 5: Tracing Photographs 67
Chapter 6: Illustrating from Sketches 84
Chapter 7: Retro Art Effects 101
Chapter 8: Coloring Comic Art 116
Part Two: Unconventional Methods
Chapter 9: Antique Effects 135
Chapter 10: Photocopier Meets Photoshop 155
Chapter 11: Urban Lowbrow Art 175
Part Three: Real World Photoshop
Chapter 12: Sketch and Dry Brush Effects 191
Chapter 13: Simulated Screen-Printing 219
Chapter 14: Real World Collage 245
Chapter 15: In and Out of Photoshop 267
Part Four: Illustrative Photography
Chapter 16: Creature Architecture 297
Chapter 17: The Third Dimension 325
Chapter 18: Aging Effects 355
Chapter 19: Representational Surrealism 375
Chapter 20: The Cover Challenge 404
Index 407
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For my daughters, Charlotte and Isabella
Foreword
Foreword
B
ack in the early 1990s, people in the former Eastern Bloc countries were just getting
used to their new freedoms. I was at university, and one of my lecturers commented that
after so many years of state-controlled media, television was their window on the world.
It’s something that’s stuck with me, and I think that if television can be a window on the
world, then perhaps Photoshop is a window on the imagination.
Round about the same time, in the early 1990s, the first versions of the program were being
developed very much with photo editing in mind. I remember getting my first Macintosh and installing
an old version of doubtful legality. (Hey, I was just a student!) Having scanned in some photos of a
fellow journalism student, and cropping his head into a triangle shape, I began duplicating it across the
document and applying different combinations of sharpen, blur, and posterize filters to each version of
his now sorry-looking face.
I knew what I created wasn’t at all good but others were impressed for roughly 15 minutes, which
made me feel like I’d been a bit of an Andy Warhol — for just about that long.
Fast forward 5 or 6 years and while I still couldn’t create anything from my own imagination using
Photoshop, or even crayon for that matter, I had discovered a man who could. Derek Lea was producing
illustrations for us onComputer Arts magazine, the likes of which we’d never seen. A colleague of
mine at the time suggested that not only should we ask Derek to create an image for us, but what if we
asked him to produce a step-by-step article, complete with screenshots, showing how his piece was
developed. I called Derek up, he accepted, and I promised him a beer the next time I was in Toronto.
We didn’t realize it at the time but we had unleashed a new force in the world of art and
illustration. Derek was showing our readers how they could use Photoshop creatively and artistically.
Pretty soon other magazines, both within our own group and rivals, picked up on Derek’s talent. He’s
gained illustration clients around the world, written books, and won awards.
His edge is that he won’t stand still, and this new edition of his book brings the proof. Despite the
magic of Photoshop, digitally retouched images often leave viewers cold, and to combat this, many
creatives bring natural media elements into their artwork. For a number of years Derek has been
enthusiastically mixing media like watercolors and inks, papers, paint on wood — not to mention found
objects — and photographs. The skills involved in combining real-world richness with the flexibility of
Photoshop are at your disposal in the new section in this edition.
Some of the commissions I’ve sent Derek over the years appear in these pages, where you can
follow how they were made. Once again it’s been an honor to write this foreword. As for my own
Photoshop skills, I figured I’d quit while I was ahead back in the 1990s . Derek Lea is your man when it
comes to image creation — I stick to the words.
Garrick Webster
Writer and magazine editor
(Former editor of Computer Arts ,3D World , and
Cre@te Online )
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Introduction
Introduction
Photoshop and me
When I first discovered Photoshop, it was 1993. I started a new job as a designer at a clothing
company. It was a really horrible job, but at least they bought me a new scanner. In those days a lot
of scanners came bundled with Photoshop. The first thing I did when I opened the scanner box was to
take the Photoshop 2.5 disks and put them in my jacket pocket. When I got home that night, I installed
Photoshop on my Mac IIci at home, and my life began to change. I know it sounds ridiculous, but in
hindsight, that was a pivotal moment for me.
I had been working in Adobe Illustrator for a few years by then, but Photoshop seemed like a
bottomless pit of creative possibilities. There was so much I could do that at times I didn’t even know
where to start. I began spending hours and hours every night just experimenting. As a result of this
endless experimentation, I gained enough knowledge and experience to successfully land myself a
position as a professional retoucher at a photography studio. This meant that I could spend all day,
every day, working in Photoshop.
The problem with hiring artists to do retouching work is that although they may be good at it,
they get bored. I was no exception. Yes, I was getting good at making cheap jewelry look expensive,
and making static cars look like they were in motion, but the novelty of those achievements wore off
quickly. Frustrated and bored with my work, yet still in love with Photoshop, I began to deviate from
working with photography in the classic sense. On my own time, I started to experiment with different
methods to create actual artwork within Photoshop. I began entering contests and then winning awards.
The next thing I knew, I had art directors calling with commissions and just like that I became an
illustrator. Illustrating digitally allowed me to work all day, every day, within Photoshop. But this time,
I wasn’t limited to retouching photographs anymore.
Another pivotal point came when my work was noticed by the world’s best-selling creative
magazine:Computer Arts . I was featured in C omputer Arts and developed a working relationship with
them that continues to this day. They started asking me to not only illustrate but to write for them as
well. Working with Computer Arts really lit a fire under me creatively. The commissions from them
constantly demanded new things and challenged me both creatively and technically. I cannot stress the
importance of my work with them enough, as my contributions to Computer Arts eventually provided
the starting point for much of the content you’ll find within this book.
Why does the world need another Photoshop book?
As a Photoshop neophyte in the early 1990s, I was always hungry for resource materials. I would scour
the local bookstores looking to be informed and inspired. What I noticed then was that Photoshop
books, more or less, fell into one of two categories.
There were books that contained beautiful collections of digital art. These books would inspire me
with their rich and thought-provoking images, but they lacked detailed instruction on how to achieve
those results. Apart from artistic inspiration, these books really didn’t offer much to a guy who wanted
to learn how.
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Introduction
The other option was books of a more instructional nature. Generally offering lots of information,
instruction, helpful hints, and tips, I found these books always lacking in the inspiration department.
Granted, I found some useful information in these books, but more often than not, I had to read the
chapters on faith alone. Basically, I would hope that afterward, I could do something remarkable on
my own with the knowledge they contained, because the imagery within those books never really
impressed me.
What you hold in your hands is the book I always wanted. My aim is to inspire you as well
as inform you. I have spent a great deal of time perfecting a variety of artistic styles and working
practices in Photoshop. And I have also spent a great deal of time producing images that I hope will
inspire you to learn. This book is for those of you who not only appreciate art but also want to know in
explicit detail how to create it on your own. There seems to be an infinite amount of Photoshop books
out there, and many of them are excellent. However, I still haven’t found that perfect book that inspires
as much as it instructs. After all these years I came to the conclusion that the book I was after didn’t
exist, so I decided to write it myself. If you are reading this right now, chances are you’ve been looking
for the same thing too.
How to use this book
This book is a series of projects. Each chapter opens with an inspirational image, and the step-by-step
instructions required to re-create that image immediately follow. You’ll find all of the resource files
needed to create each image available for download at www.creativephotoshopthebook.com. This book
is written in a nonlinear manner, meaning that you do not have to start at the beginning and progressively
work your way toward the end. Each chapter is independent of the others, so you can start wherever you
like and move around randomly from one chapter to the next. Pick a chapter with an image that inspires
you and follow it through to fruition; it’s as simple as that.
This book includes variety not only in style and subject matter but also in technique and working
methods. You’ll find a vast array of tools, features, and options as you work your way through.
Fundamental and essential working methods will appear repeatedly, but each chapter definitely has
something unique to offer in terms of both technique and artistic style.
A guitar teacher once told me that the best way to teach someone to play is to get him or her
working on something they like straightaway. Forget showing them all of the chords or notes when it
makes no sense to them yet, just get them to do something they’re interested in. That is the approach I
have taken here. You’ll get your feet wet while producing something worthwhile, and at varying stages
in the process you’ll begin to understand the value of what you’ve done. When knowledge begins to fall
into place as you work, and it most certainly will, the proverbial light comes on. At that point, you’ll
really begin to see the potential of what you’ve learned. So don’t limit yourself to simply finishing the
chapters in this book. Try to think of ways that you can take what you’ve learned from each chapter and
use it to create original artwork of your own.
Basic Photoshop knowledge
Creative Photoshop is not a beginner’s guide, nor is it exclusively for experts. It falls into that
mysterious category in-between often referred to as intermediate. The idea of what an intermediate
user does or does not know will often vary depending upon whom you’re talking to. I have written this
book assuming that you, as the reader, know your way around Photoshop and understand the basics.
I am assuming that you have an idea of what the tools do, what layers are, the difference between
vectors and pixels, etc.
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Introduction
Numerous functions and tools within Photoshop will be explored in depth, via the step-by-step
instructions in the following chapters; however, you’ll need to know the basics to follow along with
ease. For those of you who possess more ambition than Photoshop know-how, I can certainly relate.
As a beginner, I would’ve picked up this book too. My advice to those who are just starting out is to
get familiar with the Photoshop Help menu. Any time you get stuck, you can do a specific search. The
results will explain anything you need to know about using a tool or function in Photoshop. Once you
find what you’re after, you can continue following along where you left off.
Expert tips
In addition to step-by-step instruction and inspirational imagery, you’ll find hundreds of expert tips
scattered throughout this book. Some of the tips pertain to the instructions on a particular page, but
many are additional hints and pieces of advice which will prove useful for almost anything you set out
to do within Photoshop. Feel free to flip around the book and examine different tips, just as you would
randomly flip from chapter to chapter. Tips are divided into six categories, represented by different
icons as follows.
Shortcuts
These time-saving tips will shave hours off of your time spent working. Whether it is a
keyboard command or a quicker way of doing something, these tips will allow you to focus
on creating, rather than spending all of your time executing certain tasks the long way.
Info
These tips contain useful tidbits and extra information that may not be addressed in the
step-by-step instructions within each chapter. Or additional, more detailed, information is
provided to accompany a specific stage in the process.
Download fi les
These tips will point you toward the specific files required to follow along. All project files
are available for download in the project files section of the Creative Photoshop Web site.
Caution
Be extremely careful when you see this tip. You are being warned of potential pitfalls and
must carefully pay attention to prevent things from going horribly wrong.
CS4
This tip draws your attention to functions, features, and/or tools that are available only
within Photoshop CS4.
Creative tips
Creative tips provide valuable hints and advice regarding the artistic process of creating
within Photoshop. Everything from unconventional tool usage within Photoshop itself
to hints on how to extract resource materials from the physical world surrounding you is
included here.
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